What is SWAT?

SWAT – Students Working Against Tobacco

Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) is Florida’s statewide youth organization working to mobilize, educate, and equip Floridian youth to revolt against and deglamorize Big Tobacco.  We are a united movement of empowered youth working toward a tobacco-free future.

SWAT is not only a youth advocacy group, but it also promotes leadership and community involvement while focusing on policy change. SWAT works to expose Big Tobacco marketing practices and the manipulation of the tobacco industry.

SWAT – Sarasota County

Students get involved by joining a local SWAT Team, which are active in schools and community groups throughout Sarasota County. Find your SWAT team. High school SWAT members receive community service hours for their participation in meetings and events!

 The Facts

  • Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
  • Tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, drugs, and fires COMBINED.
  • Tobacco smoke contains 7,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic, and almost 70 that are known to cause cancer.
  •  9 out of 10 adult smokers in the U.S. started by age 18.
  • Cigarette use results in an estimated 28,600 deaths in Florida each year.
  • Secondhand smoke kills an estimated 600,000 people a year worldwide.
  • If current trends continue, more than 300,000 Florida youth will die prematurely from their own smoking or from secondhand smoke.
  • Tobacco companies spend more than a million dollars an hour in the U.S. alone to market their products.
  • For every person who dies from tobacco use, another 20 suffer from one or more serious smoking-related illnesses.